Chương 14
Ethan watched Claire test the car-seat strap twice.
“What would you need?” he asked.
“To stay married?”
“Yes.”
“For you to be angry without using it as a door.”
He put his hands in his pockets.
“What would you need?” she asked.
“For you to stop deciding what I can survive.”
Claire nodded slowly.
“That seems fair.”
“It doesn’t feel fair.”
“No.”
They drove home.
Two nights later, someone entered Maya Chen’s office.
Nothing obvious was stolen. A locked cabinet had been forced, and Leah’s client file was disturbed. The blue drive was not there.
Maya called Claire first because Nora’s information had been in the file.
Ethan took the phone.
“Where is the drive?”
“Secure.”
“That answer stopped being useful.”
“It is not in my office.”
“Does Daniel know where?”
“No.”
“Does Voss?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who else?”
“My attorney and I.”
“You told us you didn’t represent us.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why are we finding out after someone breaks in?”
“Because the police notified me twenty minutes ago.”
Claire reached for the phone.
“Was Nora’s address in the file?”
Maya hesitated.
“Yes.”
Daniel already knew the address. Voss might not.
Delgado arranged surveillance around the house, though she warned it could not be permanent.
Ethan moved the crib upstairs, away from the front windows. Claire resisted, then agreed. His mother offered to stay awake in shifts. Ethan told her to return to Ohio.
She refused until Claire said, “Please.”
The next morning, Ethan’s mother packed.
Before leaving, she stood beside Nora’s crib.
“Tell Daniel I love him,” she said.
Ethan looked at her.
“If I see him.”
“You will.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know my sons.”
“One of them let you bury a stranger.”
His mother flinched.
Claire, standing in the doorway, said, “Ethan.”
He did not apologize until later.
His mother drove away carrying the untouched chicken dish.
That afternoon, Daniel sent a photograph to Claire’s phone.
It showed their house from across the street.
The message beneath it read:
Voss knows.
Delgado wanted them moved immediately.
Claire agreed before Ethan did.
They were taken to a furnished rental in another county under temporary security arrangements. The house had beige walls, stiff towels, and framed prints of sailboats though the nearest water was a drainage pond behind a shopping center.
Claire brought Nora’s portable crib.
Ethan brought his duffel.
The first night, they ate pizza from paper plates while an investigator sat in a car outside.
“This feels ridiculous,” Claire said.
“What part?”
“All of it.”
Nora slept on a blanket between them.
Ethan picked a mushroom off his slice.
“You used to like mushrooms.”
“I lied.”
“For nine years?”
“You liked them.”
Claire stared at him, then laughed.
The laugh turned into crying so quickly that neither of them moved at first.
Ethan set down his pizza.
“I’m sorry.”
“For mushrooms?”
“For not knowing when you were pretending.”
Claire wiped her face.
“You weren’t supposed to know everything.”
“No. But I should have known more.”
She looked at Nora.
“I made it impossible.”
Ethan reached across the space between them and placed his hand near hers, not touching.
After a moment, Claire moved her fingers beneath his.
It was not forgiveness. It was contact.
The following day, Delgado told them Voss had disappeared.
He had failed to attend a scheduled interview, emptied one bank account, and abandoned his car near an airport. Investigators did not know whether he had left the country or wanted them to believe he had.
“Daniel warned us,” Claire said.
“He may also know where Voss is,” Delgado replied.
“Do you think Daniel broke into Maya’s office?” Ethan asked.
“Yes.”
“Not Voss?”
“The entry method resembles other incidents connected to your brother.”
Claire shook her head. “He said Voss knew.”
“That may have been true and self-serving.”
Ethan thought of Daniel’s old talent for telling truths that protected a lie.
Delgado placed a photograph on the rental’s kitchen table. It showed Daniel entering the office building behind Maya’s.
“He wore gloves,” she said. “He avoided the main camera but missed one in the alley.”
“What did he take?” Ethan asked.
“A copy of Leah’s letter, medical information, and the temporary placement documents.”
“He knows where Nora is.”
“He knew the old address. The new location is restricted.”
Daniel called that evening.
Ethan answered with Delgado listening through another line.
“You moved her,” Daniel said.
“You photographed my house.”
“Because Voss had someone there.”
“Did you see them?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“A man named Curtis Hale.”
Delgado wrote the name.
“What does Hale look like?” Ethan asked.
“Tall. Bald. Tattoo behind his left ear.”
Delgado nodded once. The name meant something.
“What does he want?”
“The drive.”
“Same as you.”
“Mine keeps him from rewriting what happened.”
“Yours keeps you from prison.”
“That too.”
Daniel’s honesty sounded almost like contempt.
“Where are you?” Ethan asked.
“You know I won’t say.”
“Then stop calling.”
“I want my daughter.”
“Do you?”
Silence.
Ethan continued. “Leah wrote that you would claim that.”
“She was angry.”
“She was dying.”
“She was always dramatic when she was afraid.”
Ethan glanced at Claire. Her face hardened.
“You left her pregnant with false identification and cash.”
“I left her with Claire.”
“You didn’t ask Claire.”
“I knew she would help.”
“That is what you call using people.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Did Claire tell you about the miscarriage?”
“Yes.”
“You angry?”
“That is none of your business.”
“You always get angry when grief wants something.”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“What do you want, Daniel?”
“A trade.”
“For what?”
“The drive for my surrender.”
“You don’t have the drive.”
“I know where it is.”
Delgado’s pen stopped.
“Then get it.”
“I need Claire.”
“No.”
“She knows the answer.”
Claire shook her head.
“Claire says she doesn’t.”
“Ask her about the song Leah played in labor.”
Claire went pale.
“What song?” Ethan asked.
“She knows.”
The call ended.
Claire sat down.
May you like
Delgado leaned forward. “What song?”
“‘Blue Moon.’ Leah played it on repeat because Daniel hated it.”
